Small Airway Morphometry and Improvement in Pulmonary Function After Lung Volume Reduction Surgery

We examined small airway morphometry from resected lung specimens in 25 patients with severe emphysema undergoing lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) and correlated their pathologic findings to changes in FEV(1) 6 months after LVRS. Patients were classified into two groups: responders had a more than 12% and a more than 200-ml change in FEV(1) at 6 months, and nonresponders had 12% or less and/or 200 ml or less change in FEV(1). Epithelial height (EH) and perimeters and areas of peribronchial smooth muscle, epithelium, and subepithelial space were measured quantitatively. The degrees of interstitial fibrosis, vascular sclerosis, goblet cell hyperplasia, squamous metaplasia, chronic inflammation, peribronchial fibrosis, and bullous disease were assessed semiquantitatively. Despite similar baseline characteristics, nonresponders had a greater EH (0.045 vs. 0.035 mm, p = 0.025), greater EH adjusted for basement membrane perimeter (0.040 vs. 0.011, p = 0.016), greater epithelial area adjusted for basement membrane area (0.561 vs. 0.499, p = 0.040), and less bullous disease (1.7 vs. 2.6, p = 0.011) compared with responders. We found a linear relationship between percentage change in FEV(1) and bullous disease and inverse relationships between percentage change in FEV(1) and interstitial fibrosis, goblet cell hyperplasia, peribronchial fibrosis, and vascular sclerosis. We conclude that small airway morphometry and lung histopathology in patients with severe emphysema have an important influence on changes in FEV(1) 6 months after LVRS.